Halliburton and Iran

The moral of the below: If you can’t join them, beat them.

Reddit readers have dug up an article by Jason Leopold alleging that Halliburton, of which Dick Cheney was CEO in 1995-2000, and which did business in Iran until 2007, supplied Iran with equipment that could have been useful to its nuclear program. Among Halliburton’s Iranian partners was Cyrus Nasseri, who was also a point man in the Iranian nuclear program. Leopold’s update shows that Cheney lobbied intensively on behalf of Iran in Congress in the late 1990s. (He also tried to get the boycott on Saddam Hussein’s Iraq lifted).

The USG Foreign Broadcast Information Service, as carried by BBC Monitoring, translated this article from an Iranian newspaper in 2005. It supports the substance of Leopold’s article. It contains a twist, though, accusing Halliburton of espionage on the Iranian nuclear program.

‘January 18, 2005, Tuesday

Iran’s nuclear negotiator said behind contract with USA’s Halliburton

SOURCE: Resalat web site, Tehran, in Persian 17 Jan 05

LENGTH: 387 words

Text of report entitled: ‘An explanation of the dimensions of the cooperation of a senior diplomat in Iran’s nuclear negotiations with senior officials of the American government, ” published ‘by Iranian newspaper Resalat web site on 17 January

An informed source has explained the new dimensions of the joint economic cooperation of the senior diplomat in Iran’s nuclear negotiations with senior officials of the American government.

In an interview given to Fars News Agency he stated that a study of the contract signed between the Iranian government and the American Halliburton Company shows that the main individuals who paved the way for the contract were Dick Cheney, the American Vice President, and Sirus Naseri, the lynchpin in Iran’s nuclear negotiations and special adviser of the Supreme National Security Council.

He added: The participation of Iran’s valuable oil contract with the Halliburton Company involving drilling 12 wells in phases nine and 10 of Southern Pars oilfields goes back to early 1383 year beginning 21st March 2004 .

In phases nine and 10 in Southern Pars gas is expected to be found in Iran’s land and marine sections over 52 months up to 1385, and 50 million cubic meters of natural gas and 400 tonnes of sulphur is expected to be extracted.

He added: With a proposal worth 282 million dollars Halliburton wanted to achieve success in this phase of the Southern Pars project.

According to this informed source, before this, too, the American company, along with the American Schlumberger, wanted to participate in phases two and three of the region, something that it failed to achieve.

Stating that there were several aspects to Halliburton’s new participation in Iran, the informed source added: The first of this is that the contact concluded with Halliburton is nearly 70 billion tumans more than the amount the company had sought. That is to say, while Halliburton had asked for nearly 23 million dollars for drilling each of the oil wells, amounting to a total of 282 million dollars for drilling the 12 wells in Oslavieyyeh, the Iranian government, in the contract that has been signed, has granted some 360 million dollars to the Halliburton-Oriental consortium, which is nearly 70 billion tumans more than the amount asked for in the bid.’